A Kenyan woman whose arms were severed by her husband for alleged bareness has received lifetime support from a global pharmaceuticals company.

Jackeline Mwende (27) also suffered multiple injuries on her neck and head after a panga attack by husband Stephen Ngila (34), who it later emerged was the cause of the couple failing to have children.

Ngila, whom doctors had diagnosed with having low sperm count, is facing attempted murder charges. The couple married in 2011.

Merck, the health group, has pledged to support Mwende throughout the rest of her life. Merck aims to empower infertile women across the continent through access to information, health and change of mindset.

Jackeline Mwende

Merck will provide Mwende with a monthly income of $250, then establish a business for her. She will receive prosthetic hands in addition to the needed physical and physiological rehabilitation.

Surgeons will need to round the stumps so they accommodate the prosthetics. Orthopaedic technologist Dennis Mwaniki said the electronic prosthetics cost Sh5 million per piece and will be imported.

A prosthetic is a device, external or implanted, that substitutes or supplements a missing or defective body part. The hospital has two types of prosthetic limbs – cosmetic and functional. Mwaniki said a cosmetic limb costs Sh90,000 a pair, while a functional prosthetic costs Sh400,000 a pair.

“After her surgery, we will train her how to use them. It will take her approximately three months to get used to them,” he said. The myoelectric prosthetics use a battery and electronic motors. They are custom-made to fit and attach to the stumps with maximum suspension using suction technology.

LG electronics will meet Mwende’s medical and transport costs. Machakos county on Monday promised Mwende a monthly stipend of Sh30,000 for a year and a househelp.

Mwende’s husband Stephen Ngila chopped her hands and hacked her head with a panga for failing to give him a child during their seven-year marriage. Doctors said Ngila has the reproductive problem.

In many cultures, childless women still suffer discrimination, stigma and ostracism. Infertility can transform from an acute, private distress into a harsh public stigma.

Experts say this usually result in divorce or physical and psychological violence. Cases of domestic violence have increased in Kenya affecting even senior citizens. Bungoma senator Moses Wetangula recently reported to police that he had been attacked by his wife. – Online Sources